Religion and Medicine A Bad Mix
As of the end of next month, the Catholic hospital group Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System will be taking over two Denver, Colorado-area Exempla hospitals. Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge and Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette will join Denver’s St. Joseph’s as hospitals controlled by the Catholic organization. The group reportedly paid $311 million to buy out their partner’s stake in the hospitals, and the buyout was not challenged by the Colorado attorney general.
Once the change is complete, Good Samaritan and Lutheran will no longer be able to offer a range of reproductive services. Abortion will obviously be nixed, but so will tubal ligations, a simple procedure often done during a cesarean section - while the abdomen is already open - for women who have determined that they do not want any more children. Gone too will be any form of contraceptives, including emergency contraception. This will apply to everyone, even rape victims brought to the hospital by ambulance who are relying on the emergency room doctors to cover all bases and act in the patients’ best interests. In addition to the wide range of reproductive services affected, end of life care will also be impacted by Catholic ethics.
Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest health insurance carriers in Colorado, insures about 480,000 Coloradans, and refers patients to Exempla hospitals. Kaiser issued this news release last week, declaring their intent to work with their physicians to make sure that their insureds retain access to a full range of reproductive services by allowing patients to use HealthONE hospitals around the metro area, including Swedish, Presbyterian/St. Luke’s, and Sky Ridge Medical Centers.
Religion has no place in medicine, just as it has no place in politics. But unfortunately, we have muddled the waters by allowing hospitals to be owned by whatever private entity can offer the highest bid. If various religious groups wanted to set up private clinics to cater to members of their religion who knowingly seek out their services, that would be fine. But when major hospitals that accept trauma patients and ambulances - situations where the patient has little say or knowledge about where he or she is being taken - are run by religious groups, a serious conflict of interests arises. And unfortunately for the patient, in a Catholic-owned hospital, Catholic ethics will trump a patient’s needs and wishes if the two are not in agreement.
RE Article “Religion and Medicine A Bad Mix” dated 1/7/08
What an arrogant secular statement to say “Regligion has no place in medicine just as it has no place in politics.” The writer of this article is clearly either unaware or totally biased against the historical fact of the massive positive influence of Religion (Christian Faith) on the development of Western Civilization, especially that of the U.S.
The very reason we have many Catholic Hospital organizations is because early on these organizations were founded out of love for Christ to serve those in need. This Biblical mandate and moral obligation was owned and acted upon by Catholics and others of the Christan Faith (Lutheran’s, Presbyterians, etc)
The founding fathers were deeply religious and any cursory look at their writings will show that their religion played a huge part in the formation of this nation, its government and governing principles. The reason our country is in the terrible shape it is in is because as Lincoln once said: “we have forgotten God.”
Freedom of Religion in the founder’s time meant that the government should not interfere with the church, today it means “the church can’t have a place in the government, marketplace of ideas, healthcare, etc. It must stay inside church walls.”
Religion is the basis for morality and morality is the basis for law. Abortion has become a political issue but it is first and foremost a moral issue. Christians identify life at conception and we will always seek to protect human life from this point. To call abortion healthcare or reproductive services is an oxymoron. By God’s grace, true Christians will fight against this curse and the culture of death while we have breath.
Our founding fathers had the simple plan of keeping government and religion separate in order to create a society where people of any religion, or none at all, were equal. Christians may have had a positive influence, they’ve also done a lot of things that have the effect of a negative influence. The fact is, they should have been doing the good they were doing to serve others in the name of Christ, not with the hidden agenda of politicking.
Abraham Lincoln did indeed say “we have forgotten God,” but he was a deist - not a Christian.
When his Christian friends at Petersburg interfered to prevent his proposed duel with Shields, and told him that it was contrary to the teachings of the Bible and Christianity, he remarked:
“The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession”
While at Washington, in a letter to his old friend, Judge Wakefield, written in 1862, in answer to inquiries respecting his belief and the expressed hope that he had become convinced of the truth of Christianity, he replied as follows:
“My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the Scriptures have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them.”
In a discussion touching upon the paternity of Jesus, he said:
“There must have been sexual intercourse between man and woman, and not between God and his daughter.”
Dave,
Thanks for your comment. Your focus seems to be on abortion:
“To call abortion healthcare or reproductive services is an oxymoron. By God’s grace, true Christians will fight against this curse and the culture of death while we have breath.”
I specifically focused on the other issues - emergency contraception for rape victims, tubal ligations and other forms of contraception, along with end of life care - that come up when a hospital is run by a Catholic organization.
The vast majority of Americans believe in family planning and the use of contraception. When a major hospital that serves a huge community of diverse people refuses to provide basic family planning services, a line has been crossed between secular and religious life.
Dave Palmgren said: “The writer of this article is clearly either unaware or totally biased against the historical fact of the massive positive influence of Religion (Christian Faith) on the development of Western Civilization, especially that of the U.S.”
There are a lot of things in history that have had an influence on the development of Western Civilization, like slavery. But it’s still unconstitutional. That is the reason for things like the establishment clause in the constitution, to keep our country from having the problems of middle eastern countries where religious sects wage war so their particular interpretation of the religion can be the official “government sanctioned religion”.
You can thank the secular population of this country for keeping the Christian right in check. Otherwise, Christians in this country would be just like the Muslims in the middle east who have created an environment where secularism is illegal and you must hold the particular religious beliefs of the state or die. The bible is not too different from the Quran:
“Women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be submissive, as the law also says.” (1 Corinthians 14:34)
“If any man takes a wife, and goes in on her, and detests her, and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings a bad name on her, and says, ‘I took this woman, and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin…
But if … evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones…” (Deuteronomy 22:13,14 & 22:20,21)
“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched.” (Mark 9:43)
(these are just a small sample)
Jan 9th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
[...] to Exempla Healthcare. The hospital board filed a lawsuit in Denver today to stop the sale of two Exempla Hospitals that were to be bought by a Catholic [...]
Jan 18th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
[...] hospital for many Colorado members will likely be the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, which was just aquired by the Catholic hospital group Sisters of Charity Health System. To assist members in transitioning their care, Kaiser Permanente will treat Longmont United [...]